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Failure of the $L^1$ pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems for the free group

Dynamical Systems · Submitted 18 May 2015

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim We give an example of a measure-preserving system $X$ and an $f \in L^1(X)$ such that the sequence ${\mathcal A}_n f(x)$ is unbounded in $n$ for almost every $x$, thus showing that the pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems do not hold in $L^1$ for actions of $F_2$.

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arXiv ID1505.04725 (version 1)
Pith IDD5Q4KDQH, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review
CitationTerence Tao. "Failure of the $L^1$ pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems for the free group." arXiv:1505.04725 (2015). https://pith.science/paper/D5Q4KDQH
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Compiled by classifier-1.13-20260917 via OpenRouter, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 4,857 input tokens, $0.0002 reported.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.07 · states limitation 0.28 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.02 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.23 · compares with prior results 0.97 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v1. Results and the main claim are underlined; .

Let $F_2$ denote the free group on two generators $a,b$. For any measure-preserving system $(X, {\mathcal X}, \mu, (T_g)_{g \in F_2})$ on a finite measure space $X = (X,{\mathcal X},\mu)$, any $f \in L^1(X)$, and any $n \geq 1$, define the averaging operators $${\mathcal A}_n f(x) := \frac{1}{4 \times 3^{n-1}} \sum_{g \in F_2: |g| = n} f( T_g^{-1} x ),$$ where $|g|$ denotes the word length of $g$. We give an example of a measure-preserving system $X$ and an $f \in L^1(X)$ such that the sequence ${\mathcal A}_n f(x)$ is unbounded in $n$ for almost every $x$, thus showing that the pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems do not hold in $L^1$ for actions of $F_2$. This is despite the results of Nevo-Stein and Bufetov, who establish pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems in $L^p$ for $p>1$ and for $L \log L$ respectively, as well as an estimate of Naor and the author establishing a weak-type $(1,1)$ maximal inequality for the action on $\ell^1(F_2)$. Our construction is a variant of a counterexample of Ornstein concerning iterates of a Markov operator.

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What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#sentencerolethe authors' own workstates the main conclusionstrength
s0 Let $F_2$ denote the free group on two generators $a,b$. background 1.00 0.08 0.01 asserted 0.76
s1 For any measure-preserving system $(X, {\mathcal X}, \mu, (T_g)_{g \in F_2})$ on a finite measure space $X = (X,{\mathcal X},\mu)$, any $f \in L^1(X)$, and any $n \geq 1$, define the averaging operators $${\mathcal A}_n f(x) := \frac{1}{4 \times 3^{n-1}} \sum_{g \in F_2: |g| = n} f( T_g^{-1} x ),$$ where $|g|$ denotes the word length of $g$. background 0.87 0.30 0.02 asserted 0.77
s2 We give an example of a measure-preserving system $X$ and an $f \in L^1(X)$ such that the sequence ${\mathcal A}_n f(x)$ is unbounded in $n$ for almost every $x$, thus showing that the pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems do not hold in $L^1$ for actions of $F_2$. result 0.88 0.97 0.97 asserted 1.00
s3 This is despite the results of Nevo-Stein and Bufetov, who establish pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems in $L^p$ for $p>1$ and for $L \log L$ respectively, as well as an estimate of Naor and the author establishing a weak-type $(1,1)$ maximal inequality for the action on $\ell^1(F_2)$. background 0.92 0.29 0.09 asserted 1.00
s4 Our construction is a variant of a counterexample of Ornstein concerning iterates of a Markov operator. method 0.93 0.62 0.02 asserted 1.00

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: theoretical result 1.00 · evidence from proof or derivation 1.00.

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Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper
Original abstract

Let $F_2$ denote the free group on two generators $a,b$. For any measure-preserving system $(X, {\mathcal X}, \mu, (T_g)_{g \in F_2})$ on a finite measure space $X = (X,{\mathcal X},\mu)$, any $f \in L^1(X)$, and any $n \geq 1$, define the averaging operators $${\mathcal A}_n f(x) := \frac{1}{4 \times 3^{n-1}} \sum_{g \in F_2: |g| = n} f( T_g^{-1} x ),$$ where $|g|$ denotes the word length of $g$. We give an example of a measure-preserving system $X$ and an $f \in L^1(X)$ such that the sequence ${\mathcal A}_n f(x)$ is unbounded in $n$ for almost every $x$, thus showing that the pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems do not hold in $L^1$ for actions of $F_2$. This is despite the results of Nevo-Stein and Bufetov, who establish pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems in $L^p$ for $p>1$ and for $L \log L$ respectively, as well as an estimate of Naor and the author establishing a weak-type $(1,1)$ maximal inequality for the action on $\ell^1(F_2)$. Our construction is a variant of a counterexample of Ornstein concerning iterates of a Markov operator.

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